A Smullyan Masterpiece
( The White King is Invisible! Where is he?)
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| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
Raymond Smullyan
THE WHITE KING IS INVISIBLE - WHERE IS HE?
© Raymond Smullyan
"When you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth."
Sherlock Holmes
Don't forget, you'll need to work out the moves that led to this position and you must replace any captured pieces as you work backwards.
TIP: It would take a genius to solve this without a chessboard!
Remember the strange positioning of the Black Rook and the White King in the previous puzzle?
Here we have a similar situation with the White Bishop and Black King.
Sorry everybody, I know this is a real puzzler but I'm not going to give you the solution.
If you can't work it out for yourself (I didn't!) think about the big hints that I've listed below. They should give you a fighting chance.
Alternatively, you can always buy a copy of Smullyan's book:
The Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights
by Raymond Smullyan
HINTS: What happened to bring about this position?
The Black Rook and Black Bishop preclude the White King from standing on square b3, but could he have been there earlier?
In Passing, and in case you hadn't already noticed, the Black King is occupying White's side of the board.
• • ◊ • •
[ Thanks to Washington Grammar School Teacher Mr Gibbon, who taught me and scores of other pupils how to play this wonderful game. Jim ]